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16 May 2006

Dublin WUDC 2006 Summary

The championships were won by Michael Kotrly and Joanna Nairn representing Hart House, University of Toronto, defeating the University of Chicago (represented by Daragh Grant and Patrick Emerson), Yale University (David Denton and Josh Bone), and the Inner Temple, (Greg Ó Ceallaigh and Charlie Sparling) in the Grand Final. This was "UofT"'s first win since the first Worlds in 1981 and the second successive Canadian win. Beth O'Connor and Rory Gillis of Yale shared the best speaker award, capping the best North American performance at the championships in over a decade.

323 teams were listed on the team results (together with a "swing" team which evened it to a required multiple of four), making Dublin 2006 the largest Worlds ever. Lars Duursma and Sharon Kroes from Erasmus University won the ESL competition with Anat Gelber from Haifa University winning ESL best speaker. This was also the first year that a team from France competed in the tournament. O'Neill Simpson from the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill (Barbados) won the Public Speaking tournament.

Colm Flynn from University of Limerick was awarded the newly created Order of Distinction by the World Universities Debating Council. While the championships were seen to have raised the bar again for future hosts in terms of the level of professionalism in their organisation, there were a number of concerns over delegates' health as cases of suspected meningitis and confirmed flu were reported after the break was announced.

Assumption University of Thailand bid to host the championship in 2008 and stood unopposed.

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The website founder and editor is Colm Flynn. Colm is an emeritus member of the World Debating Council, a former Deputy Chief Adjudicator of Worlds and Chair of Worlds Council. He lives in Ardfinnan Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Colm is supported by a team of contributors from around the world. To submit an article e-mailcolm_flynn@hotmail.com